


Gloves

by architect_N3J



Series: Pyrex One-shots [3]
Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Azurda isn't third wheeling for once, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, F/M, Fonsett Village is the home of all my Rex/Pyra fluff, I Don't Even Know, Just two dorks being cute, Mythra is the voice of reason, Nia is actually a master card player just no one knows it yet, Pointless fluff, Pyra is a rebel, Rex and Pyra are BACK AT IT AGAIN WHAT UP, Rex is a concerned boy for his wife, This should not have taken me as long as it did to write like seriously, he overreacts like always, i'm back from the dead, injuries again oh no, mild chapter 7 spoilers, welcome to another episode of romantically helpless Rex, what even is this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 19:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14677845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/architect_N3J/pseuds/architect_N3J
Summary: He knows Pyra can handle herself, but Architect, knives are dangerous.In which Rex insists on doing Pyra a favor after a cooking incident. Involves hand holding and pointless fluff.





	Gloves

**Author's Note:**

> HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT I'M NOT DEAD
> 
> So I took a break from writing TROMH so work on something a little different because I needed some Rex/Pyra fluff to heal my soul. But now that this piece of trash is finished, I'm ready to start working on chapter 4! However, I am going to wait until school finishes because I have exams to study for and whatnot, so wish me luck I guess. :/ But on the bright side, I will have more time to write now so hopefully I'll be able to update more often. Look forward to an update sometime next week!
> 
> So anyway, I'm glad that I finally managed to finish this. This is a rewrite; I started the original back in December, but I didn't really have a good grasp on the characters then, so it never saw the light of day until today, because now I actually know how to write decent fanfiction. So without further ado, let us read onward!

Water, Pyra decided, is not her favorite element. Especially when said liquid streaming from the kitchen faucet is exceptionally cold. She supposes it's because her powers revolve around heat, but nevertheless she shivers as she hurries to finish washing the bowl of various vegetables for lunch. She swiftly turns the handle, eager to rid herself of the icy feeling in her hands.

When they first arrived here, in Fonsett, Pyra immediately fell in love with the place. It's happy and peaceful, and everyone here is so carefree. Maybe her strong affinity with the village has something to do with the fact that Rex is her Driver, or maybe her opinion is influenced by her fondness of him, but regardless it's her favorite location out of everywhere they've seen thus far.

The Aegis hums a tune to herself as she selects a knife from the knife block and begins peeling a Meaty Carrot. Taking a short glance at the room adjacent to the kitchen, she finds most of the party playing some sort of card game. The ones who are absent—Rex, Brighid, and Morag—went outside to spar, promising they would be back in time to eat. Pyra tries to get a closer look at what game is being played in the other room, but ultimately gives up and returns to slicing vegetables, because she's sure that whatever it is wasn't around 500 years ago. Instead, she focuses on the task at hand.

As Pyra busies herself peeling the rest of the assortment of greens, she allows her thoughts to wander for a bit. The journey to Elysium has been quite an adventure so far, and she's grateful to have met so many wonderful people along the way. People who are brave, loyal, charismatic, and bright.

And speaking of wonderful people…

 _Stop that,_  she mentally scolds herself, although it sounds like Mythra talking.  _You're not allowed to like him. Can you imagine how heartbroken he's going to be when he finds out why we're going to Elysium? Getting into a relationship would only make that worse._

The redhead sighs. "You're right," she agrees with her other half out loud, although no one seems to hear her. "It's for the best."

Unfortunately, Pyra had been so caught up in her thoughts that she hasn't realized her hands are subconsciously continuing to peel the Meaty Carrot in front of her, and in a matter of seconds, the knife that she's holding slips, generating a small but painful cut across her left palm.

"Ouch!" the Blade yelps as she recoils her hand and drops the knife, allowing it to clatter to the floor.

"You okay, Pyra?" Nia asks from the next room over.

Pyra composes herself after the short shock of accidentally getting cut. "Y-yes, I'm fine." She picks up the knife from the floor and drops it in the sink before looking down at her injured palm. "Um, could I borrow your first aid kit?"

The Gormotti drops her cards momentarily. "Uh...sure. What happened?"

The Aegis makes her way to where everyone else is sitting and extends her arm for the healer to see. "The knife slipped."

Nia's face contorts. "...Oh. Yeah, go ahead and take care of that."

"Thanks, Nia."

"No problem."

As soon as Pyra leaves to fetch the first aid kit, the front door bursts open, and Rex enters, cradling his wounded hand and looking out of breath. Brighid and Morag are behind him, wearing expressions of mild concern.

"Pyra!" The salvager calls out, worry etched on his face.

"She's fine, Rex," Nia reassures him nonchalantly as she plays the winning card. She gestures behind her towards the guest rooms. "Go and see for yourself."

The boy nods and jogs past the living room, eager to make sure his Blade is indeed, alright.

The cards are being shuffled and dealt for a new game as Morag takes an empty seat, followed by Brighid. "What happened?"

The Gormotti finishes shuffling the cards. "Dunno. I guess she was cutting vegetables or something, and then...the knife slipped." She pauses. "Do you guys wanna play?"

Brighid shakes her head.

"What about you, Morag?"

"I think I'll spectate this round," The Flamebringer answers. "I haven't played this since Niall and I were children."

"Alright."

And with that, the cards are dealt.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rex had finally managed to find his Blade in one of the guest rooms, where she had already begun to clean out the cut on her hand.

"Hey, Pyra," he greets with a friendly smile, followed by a look of concern.

The Blade in question glances up from her work. "Oh—Rex. I was meaning to find you after I took care of this." She sets the cloth aside. "How's your hand?"

The salvager takes a seat on the bed next to her. "I'll be okay," he begins, taking a look at the gash on his palm and trying his best not to wince in pain. "It was a bit surprising though."

"Sorry about that…"

"No no, it's fine. It was just a little worrying. I thought it might have been something worse than just… Uh, what happened anyway?"

Pyra starts to wrap a bandage around her wound. "I'm not really sure. I guess I was just lost in thought and wasn't paying attention until I got cut."

The teen remembers seeing a cutting board full of half-chopped Meaty Carrots and connects the dots. "Slicing vegetables, right?"

"Yes."

The Driver sighs. "Pyra...you've gotta be more careful. It affects both of us when stuff like this happens."

The redhead finishes bandaging her hand. "Sorry. Again."

"Hey…" Rex hesitates in taking any action to diffuse the situation at first, but reaches up with his unscathed hand to brush her hair behind her ear with an affectionate smile. "Don't worry about it; it's in the past. Why try to fix something you have no control over, ya know?"

The Blade beams back at him. "Yeah… You're right."

The two subconsciously inch closer to each other, the situation forgotten for the moment. The brunette looks up into Pyra's eyes, and the expression on his face almost seems...infatuated, but she's sure it's just her imagination. However, she does note that Rex still hasn't removed his hand from resting on her cheek. She decides to return his endearing smile, and leans forward ever so slightly.

It's funny; in all the time they've been traveling together, they never realized that the other is...actually quite attractive. They've gotten lost in each others' eyes before, but now it's completely different… In a good way, of course.

The Aegis has no idea why her Driver is acting so cordial all of a sudden, but she's not necessarily complaining. Their faces are inches apart at this point, and they're absorbed in their own world, only consisting of each other. Neither of them have to say anything to understand what the other is feeling; the pure devotion filling the air is almost tangible.

And then, like the fall of the water tower in Torigoth, it all comes crashing down.

Rex reaches forward to take Pyra's hand, but is quickly reminded that his own is still hurt and bleeding, and recoils in pain.

"Ow!" he winces, pulling back several inches from his Blade.  _Architect, how close were they just now?_  The salvager replays the previous moment in his head; they were leaning towards each other, his hand still resting on the side of her neck. And then...was he going to  _kiss her_?

"Titan's foot!" he hisses, wishing there was something he could slam his face against in his self-annoyance.

"Rex, are you okay?" Pyra doesn't seem fazed by what almost happened a few seconds ago. Or maybe she's just controlling her emotions a lot better. The brunette can't decide which it is.

He turns to face her, trying his best to ignore the sudden warmth in his cheeks. "Y-yeah. I'm fine."

"Sorry. Let's get that taken care of."

"R-right."

The redhead gestures for his hand. The young teen complies, allowing her to gently take it in hers to patch it up. She reaches for a fresh cleaning cloth. "This might sting a little."

Rex nods confidently. "I can take it."

The Aegis smiles and starts by washing off the excess blood surrounding her Driver's injury. Unfortunately for him, he underestimated the strength of the disinfectant, and almost immediately retracts his arm, but it's held in place by his Blade.

"I told you it would hurt," she tells him. "But I need you to hold still."

"Sorry," the Driver grimaces. "I can't—ow! …I can't help it."

The two fall silent after that. Rex wordlessly observes as Pyra continues to clean out the cut across his palm, wincing whenever she touches a particular spot. Finally she finishes—which he's grateful for—and moves on to wrapping his hand in a bandage. While she does this, it occurs to the young salvager that they should probably take precautions to prevent this incident from happening again. What can he do? He knows Pyra can handle herself, but  _Architect, knives are dangerous._  Rex brainstorms for a second; gloves, he finally concludes. Wearing gloves is a much better alternative, and even though Pyra already has a pair, they don't exactly protect her hands from anything, being fingerless and thin. He's willing to bet their only purpose is for her coolness factor. And he knows that her mind tends to wander a lot, so maybe doing her a favor by getting her a new pair of gloves for cooking is a good thing.

"Rex?"

The Driver is pulled from his thoughts at the sound of his name. He turns to face his Blade. "Yeah?"

The Aegis returns his hand, now completely patched up and on its way to healing. "Here."

The brunette examines Pyra's handiwork. "Awesome. Thanks Pyra." He flashes her a smile, but doesn't stand to leave. "So, about lunch… I was thinking...maybe we should have something else."

The redhead's shoulders fall. "What? I thought you liked Pan-Fried Tartari."

"No no, I do, it's just...erm...I don't want you to hurt yourself again."

"Rex…"

The teen runs his uninjured hand through his hair. "And, I know that you can look after yourself and all, but I mean—I think it would be nice, 'cos we hardly ever get to go out for lunch, ya know? I have some extra gold we can spare, and I'm sure the others would agree-"

"Rex."

The boy in question is no longer speaking directly to Pyra, lost in his rambling. "...but that's besides the point. What I'm trying to say is-"

"Rex!" His Blade finally manages to bring him back down to earth. He stops mid sentence, suddenly unable to find words. Pyra chuckles and ruffles his hair. "You're rambling," she tells him, smiling at his dorkiness.

Rex rubs the back of his neck and turns his attention towards the floor. "Sorry," he says, his face heating up. "I just think we should do something different every once in a while. What do you think? Do you wanna go?"

"Go where?"

"Go out. Ya know, for lunch. We can talk, and laugh, and, well, learn more about each other. Driver to Blade."

The Aegis allows his offer to sink in for a moment. "You mean...like a…like a date?" she suggests, her cheeks turning pink.

The salvager finally realizes the context of his words. "What?! No! Th-that's not...I-I didn't mean it like that!" He stutters, blushing furiously. "I just—uhm, figured it might be nice. And uh, it's probably better than risking getting cut again. Yeah, definitely better."

The Blade hums to herself, thinking as she restores the contents of the first aid kit. "Well, you're not wrong, so I guess I have nothing to lose. Besides," she makes eye contact. "It sounds like fun."

Rex tries his best to resist turning into a flustered mess at the idea of indirectly asking Pyra out on a date, despite denying that his intentions had that sort of sentiment behind them. He meant what he said though; he's been wanting to take some time to get to know his Blade a little more for a while, so he figures that today is as good an opportunity as any. But in all honesty, he'd rather she just not handle any knives until he can take her to get some new gloves for cooking. Besides, everyone else is going too, so it can't possibly be a date, right?

 _Right_...

The Driver finally stands and gives his bandaged hand one last onceover before extending the other to bring Pyra to her feet. She towers over him, as usual, and Rex wishes for the millionth time that he was just a few inches taller. Gramps has been telling him that he should hitting a growth spurt sometime soon, but he's still as short as he's always been.  _Architect, what gives?_  He's tired of having to look up at someone when he speaks to them, which happens to be the case with almost half the party. He sighs inwardly and leads his Blade back to the main room under the suggestion to go and tell the others about the change of plans.

* * *

Despite insisting that he wasn't aiming to take Pyra out on a date, the two of them still ended up going somewhere together, but it wasn't anywhere romantic.

At least, it shouldn't have been. It's kind of hard not to express your complicated emotions about someone when you take them out just to treat them to something nice. And it doesn't help that Rex chose not to tell Pyra where they were going before heading back to fetch the others for lunch.

The salvager leads his Blade to local shop, trying extremely hard to ignore the fact that she began to hold his hand on the way there. They've held each other's hand before, but that was when their feelings were more platonic than romantic. Now that he has some newfound feelings for his Blade, little things like this take on a whole new meaning for him.

Rex shoves this thought aside and approaches the section of the shop that holds different types of gloves. Pyra glances down at him quizzically.

"Rex, what are we doing here?"

The brunette doesn't answer her question, instead gesturing to the wide array of gauntlets before them.

"Which one do you want?"

"Huh?"

He averts her gaze, blushing slightly. "This is why I wanted to go somewhere for lunch today. There's something I wanted to do first. I...I wanted to get you a pair of gloves—for cooking. So you don't end up hurting yourself again." He finishes this last statement with a warm smile.

The Aegis doesn't respond right away, staring blankly at her Driver with a mix of emotions. She feels surprised, confused, and happy all at the same time, and she's not sure which of these she wants to convey. She decides to go with the last one.

"Rex, I… I don't know what to say. Thank you, but you really don't have to do this. I'll be more careful from now on, I promise."

"But…" The teen sighs, admitting defeat. "Okay. If you say so."

Pyra smiles and squeezes Rex's hand. "Hang on a second." She takes the other one. "I don't think it's necessary for you do this for me, but if it will make you happy, then I'll let you." She chooses to ignore Mythra's advice for the moment; she can't help it if she finds Rex's dorky habits to be really charming and cute.

The shopkeeper watches this exchange from a few feet away, but says nothing.

Rex's eyes light up and he gives her a toothy grin. "Really?"

The Blade's cheeks turn a light pink. She breaks eye contact and fidgets with her hair momentarily. "It's kind of hard to say no when you're looking at me like that."

"Oh—uh, yeah. Right. So then," the young salvager eagerly changes the subject. "Pick whichever kind you like."

"Hmm…" The redhead examines the variety of patterns in front of her, before finally settling her eyes on a pair of gloves with pink and red floral designs. "These ones," she says, pulling them from their place and bringing them to the shopkeeper, who glances at the merchandise briefly before giving a price.

"That'll be 90G," he explains, trying to hide his intrigue about his newest customers.

Rex fishes the money from his wallet and makes the trade.

"Have a nice day," The shopkeeper calls cheerily as he watches the couple leave.

"You too," the brunette replies, subconsciously taking Pyra's hand again and leading her back to the house.

After a few minutes, Pyra breaks the silence.

"Thanks again, Rex. That was really sweet of you."

Rex rubs the back of his neck awkwardly at the compliment. "Ah, well...you know, I just, erm… I care a lot about you, so you know…"

"Aw, Rex…" The Aegis chuckles, stopping them in their tracks. "I care about you too."

She knows it's probably not the best idea, but she leans down to give her Driver a soft kiss on the cheek. His breath hitches at this and he blushes intensely, but before he can formulate a response, his Blade has already continued the walk back to Corinne's house. He notices that her own face has colored a shade of red to match her hair, but he decides not to comment, instead opting to simply enjoy being in her presence. Perhaps that's the best thing for both of them right now.

And of course, Mythra deserves an explanation, but Pyra resolves that it will be a conversation for another time.

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda low-key think this is such trash, but if you liked it, then that's cool I guess. I'm hoping to be able to finish chapter 4 of TROMH sometime next week, as school will be finished by then, so fingers crossed that my inspiration won't fail me. I pretty much have it all planned out, so it shouldn't take too long. But anyway I hope you have a wonderful day/night, and I'll see you guys again in Angst Land. Ciao! ;3


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